Why it works: Cream cheese and coffee work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 100 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl pentanoate, which smells yeast, fruit. The science ↓
The recipe
12 servingsIngredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Beat the softened butter and softened cream cheese together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add the salt and cocoa powder and beat on low speed until evenly combined.
Add the confectioners' sugar about 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, until incorporated.
Pour in 3 tablespoons of strong brewed coffee and beat until smooth. Add more coffee a teaspoon at a time if the icing is too stiff.
If the icing is too thin, beat in more confectioners' sugar a little at a time until it reaches a spreadable consistency.
Beat on medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes until light and fluffy, then use to frost cooled cakes or cupcakes.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream cheese + coffeetop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together100 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl pentanoate (yeast, fruit).
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Cocoa powder + coffeetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together541 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Butter + cream cheesetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + cocoa powdertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,117 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + coffeetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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